Banning Children from Playing Outside

Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen, move over - Florida reality continues to trump fantasy and novelistic legerdemain. Perhaps it's the effect of earthquakes and oil spills (the recent anniversary of the BP disaster) but strangeness pervades the state. Some weeks ago five teenagers in Silver Springs Shore snorted the remains of two Great Danes convinced they would get high, and then dumped the results in Love, Joy, and Magic Lake.Maybe something is hiding in the water supply. The homeowners of a small community in Silver Springs now wish to ban children from playing outdoors. Their stated reason - safety. Fines of $100 will be leveled on transgressive tykes.Particularly disliked by the homeowners association are games of tag, "loud or obnoxious toys," that perennial plaything of deviltry - skateboarding, and, somewhat inevitably, Big Wheels. As one board member explains "They came in and rented in a community that does not have a playground and is not conducive to children. Then they expect the children to play in the driveways and parking lot. You wouldn't see them playing the parking lot at Walmart or Kmart."Perhaps someone will point out to board member Kim Scott that employees don't live inside Walmart with their families.

What's Really Happening

At first glance this appears a story of how local people really hate children. Yet much of what is going on is the result of Florida's ongoing meltdown, a full blown, financial crisis-provoked economic depression that most refuse to call by its real name. Communities that would otherwise try to make themselves "adult only" with no inhabitant aged less than 55 now find they can't readily survive without inviting in younger folks. They resent that situation, and then make rules to try and get rid of their new neighbors - without "legally" bidding them goodbye.The tactic won't work. People living in the community will fight being forced to leave their kids inside. Yet this incident does demonstrate how many communities fail to see improving the health of their members as a neighborhood goal.The United States, as a nation, does very much same. We don't even mention public health in national debates - we just talk about the cost of health care. Instead we should debate the costs of preserving and improving health. Which brings up some of the many reasons for kids to play outside:

The Nature of Human Nature

Kids need to play outdoors:1. To foster a sense of community. Neighborhoods need act like communities, where there are young and old and people who need not all look the same. The Silver Springs community vote speaks to the desire to exclude - and perhaps involves more than worries about noisy kids. Societies that are close knit and have strong social ties produce longer lived citizens. That includes the longest lived group on earth, Asian-American women in Suffolk County.

2. To prevent obesity - with 20% of children in America obese, you really must let them play outside. High fructose corn syrup and misguided national food policies are part of the reason, but lack of physical activity by a generation entranced by cell phones and electronic media is now setting up a future diabetes epidemic. We will all pay for the giant health care bills that result, and the decreased economic productivity of a large part of the work force.

3. Improve immunity. Kids who play in the dirt get less asthma, and seem to be more immunologically robust - which may help prevent other immunological based illnesses like MS.

4. Make friends. Human social cohesion starts in the womb. Kids need to meet other kids and other adults, so they can play with those their own age and model their behavior on those older and hopefully wiser.

6. Get involved in sports- good for overall health. Children are ingenious, and can play in circumscribed places - as they do all over the world.

7. Sunlight - yes, it makes for more skin cancer, but sunlight also enhances mood and resets biological clocks that have been rearranged by children spending so much time indoors engaged with electronic media.

Adults and Kids

Are adults required to be around when kids play? Of course. But they need not always be their parents. Remember days when your neighbors knew you? When other mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers enjoyed watching the neighborhood's kids?We need to return to such forms of social enjoyment - for all our sakes.

Perhaps these nice people in Florida don't want to hear screaming and ranting children outside their window. Maybe they don't want their cars scratched? Maybe they don't want their law furniture stolen?

I'm not responsible for raising your kids. If you want to have kids fine, but you deal with them and don't expect everyone else to tolerate their destructive and disturbing behavior. That is what we call parenting. Quit trying to recruit the village for unpaid child-rearing duties where we become fully liable if junior feels we looked at him the wrong way. Non-parents have everything to lose and nothing to gain from getting involved with your kids.

Perhaps these nice people in Florida don't want to hear screaming and ranting children outside their window. Maybe they don't want their cars scratched? Maybe they don't want their law furniture stolen?

I'm not responsible for raising your kids. If you want to have kids fine, but you deal with them and don't expect everyone else to tolerate their destructive and disturbing behavior. That is what we call parenting. Quit trying to recruit the village for unpaid child-rearing duties where we become fully liable if junior feels we looked at him the wrong way. Non-parents have everything to lose and nothing to gain from getting involved with your kids.

Oh, wow! This post seems so surreal and sad to me. As the mother of three boys, I'm grateful to live in a neighborhood where children still play outside. Our court is mixed -- some families have raised children who are out of the house, many are in the midst of childrearing (myself included), and some don't have any children.

I keep a close eye on my boys, and the other moms and I have enacted a list of "neighborhood rules" that has been helpful for all of us in keeping our kids safe. We have a co-op for babysitting, and take turns being the supervisor so some of us can run errands or catch up on laundry while the kids play. I am grateful for the friendships of these moms, and truly, this "village" is raising a fine group of kids!!

A snowstorm this winter found our children outside volunteering to shovel for our elderly neighbors. My son has raked leaves for one of these families for several falls now, refusing any money for his work. After all, he says, he's a cub scout, and that's what scouts do.

I say that to say that not all kids are wild animals, bent on destroying property or causing problems. My boys just like to ride their bikes and play ball with the neighbor kids. At our last block party, we had 100% turnout, and one of the other moms asked the question of the older generation -- "Do our kids ever bother you? PLEASE let us know if they do." They all started telling stories about raising their own kids. One woman, the one my son rakes for, had tears in her eyes as she told us that she is so pleased with the way our neighborhood has gone...that kids still play outside instead of inside, with video games. (As her grandkids are doing.)

Not all parents are MIA. Many of us are just doing our best to raise healthy, well-adjusted kids...who like to play outside!

@Crimson...You're probably one of those people that buy a house with an airport in the backyard and then complain about the noise.

@Dr Edlund I agree with everything you said but I take a slight issue with one statement. Slight. I don't think the diabetes epidemic is coming. I think it's already here and will just get worse.

See the recent faisco of the chicago public schools banning kids from bringing lunches from home so they can serve them healthy meals, like frozen chicken nuggets and pizza. Meals like this only grease the skids to a life of obesity and ill-health.